After eight years of incarceration, a South African court has found a Nigerian televangelist not guilty of 32-count charge on Wednesday, after he was jailed on accusations of raping and sexually assaulting several young women from his church.
Eastern Cape High Court judge Irma Schoeman declared that the prosecution had botched its case against 66-year-old Tim Omotoso, the senior pastor of the Jesus Dominion International church in South Africa, by mishandling the evidence.
Persecondnews reports that Omotoso, arrested in 2017, fell to his knees and appeared to pray after the judge found him not guilty of all charges, which included sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Justice Schoeman ruled that although Omotoso’s explanations seemed improbable, the state prosecutors had failed to prove their case against him and his two assistants beyond a reasonable doubt.
She ruled: “The accused are found not guilty and are discharged on all the charges.”
The women who testified against Omotoso alleged that he had personally selected them, and that following each intimate encounter, he would pray for forgiveness.
According to the judge, some of the victims were members of the gospel girl band Grace Galaxy, which was established by the pastor, while others were still schoolgirls at the time.
The acquittal verdict coincided with South Africa’s ongoing struggle to combat alarming rates of rape and abuse against women and children.
Outside the courtroom in Gqeberha, a coastal city in eastern South Africa, dozens of women staged a protest, gathering to express their sentiments as the verdict was delivered.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters took to the streets in multiple cities in the country on Tuesday, demanding justice and action from authorities after a seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped at her school last year, a crime that remains unsolved with no arrests made.
South African police reported 42,500 rapes during the 2023-2024 financial year, highlighting the country’s alarming rate of sexual violence.
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